


stardust

by pocketsizedtitan



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, Reincarnation AU, i like useless tags, i'm too tired to think of witty tags, or useful tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-05
Updated: 2013-11-05
Packaged: 2017-12-31 14:42:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1032877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocketsizedtitan/pseuds/pocketsizedtitan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reincarnation AU. "There’s a name in your heart, it’s branded in your soul, and it’s trying to force its way past your lips."</p>
            </blockquote>





	stardust

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted on tumblargh. also inspired by gemini syndrome's "stardust."

Have you ever just met someone and knew at that very moment, that very day, that very hour, that very minute, that very  _second_ that they were your soul mate? Up until then, you realize you hadn’t been truly living, because something important has been missing, but you hadn’t known. How could you have possibly known? How could you have possibly known that on this day – this hour, minute, second – the truth of how  _empty_ your life had been would come crashing into you like a beautiful, beautiful train wreck?

The years until then go flashing in your mind. There’s good memories, bad memories, sad memories, happy memories. The memories go by, racing away like cars on a highway, each one heading to the now. But there’s only one road and too many cars and they all coalesce where the past and the now merge; where every turn you took, every street, every intersection, every right or left turn, every U-turn because you got a little lost along the way, every intricate maze of highways, every exit and entrance, every sign pointed you towards.

Or maybe you’d just been lost this whole time until you stumble – awkward limbs, uncertainty and all – upon a wondrously magnificent accident. Or maybe getting lost was part of the plan and this wasn’t an accident but the world works in mysterious ways and none of those things matter to you and it sounds cliché but there’s your  _soul mate_ standing a few feet away and there’s  _stars_ in the sky and the moon is so freaking bright and the world is spinning, spinning, spinning and everything’s new and amazing and wonderful and – you’re  _alive_.

There’s a name in your heart, it’s branded in your soul, and it’s trying to force its way past your lips. A name from a long time ago – an impossibly long time ago, perhaps an eternity – and all those cars coalesced at the now crumble beneath the weight of this one name you  _have_ to remember. You just know with every fiber in your being that you know this person. Maybe it’s because they’re your other half, but it’s something else, something much more. There’s something about those eyes, Caribbean seas on a summer day, the way strands of brown hair curl and frame a lovely face that tugs at your heart.

Jean wants to ask for his name but he can’t find his voice. A ghost of a memory whispers to him, a promise made another lifetime ago,  _don’t forget me_. The guilt claws away at him because he’s  _forgotten_ but maybe there’s room for forgiveness when those eyes stare at him with the patience of a saint. He’s prepared to drop to his knees to grovel, to beg for the forgiveness he shouldn’t so readily be given, to swear he’ll never forget and plead for more time, for more patience because he doesn’t remember at the moment but his heart does and it hurts.

He smiles and it’s the sun shattering through every dark day, every dark corner. It’s both familiar and unfamiliar. It’s hopeful and magnificent and sad; a loneliness weighs on him that Jean wants nothing more than to help bare. Jean wonders if he’s been looking for him, if he’s been looking for Jean all this time while he hasn’t even remembered – remember  _what_?

Something trickles from the furthest corners of his memories – soaring through trees, catching a glimpse of wild, vivid green-blue eyes, wind alive against his face.

“I’m sorry,” Jean starts to say. He wants to breach the distance between them, to touch him, to hold him, but his uncertainty leaves him rigid and stiff.

He looks ready to fall apart, but he keeps his head high, faith in his eyes and it’s _imperative_ Jean remembers.

“I’m so—“

He knows a place from long ago where people lived – where everyone lived but the details are fuzzy – and walls, large, all-encompassing walls that protected them – _from what?_  – and the voice of a boy who dreamt of the outside world.

“—rry.”

He knows a boy from long ago who pissed him off, frustrated him, confused him, made his world spiral out of control. When he cried stardust fell from his eyes.

“Sorry,” Jean repeats, because the memories are slow to come and he’s standing there as a smile flutters across his face that renders Jean speechless – the boy from long ago smiles beneath the glow of the candle as he shares a secret – and Jean thinks he’s going to cry.

“It’s okay,” he says, breaching the distance first and up close his eyes really are beautiful.

Something inside of him resonates with that voice –  _Jean_ – and he thinks he’s starting to remember.

“It’s okay,” he repeats, warm fingers touches his cheeks and thread through sandy hair.

_Let’s find each other again. In another life._

“Jean,” he calls to him.

_Don’t forget me._

“Eren.”

And stardust falls from the boy’s eyes.

 _ErenErenEren_.


End file.
